Chicago & North Western Railway Co.
Office of the General Manager,
Chicago Feby 12th, 1876.
To I.B. Howe, Clinton
Dear Sir,
I want to make a little collection of the different illustrated subjects which you have sent up here from Clinton from time to time - to send to a friend of mine of the New York Stock Exchange.
If you will kindly send me a copy of any you may have by you I shall be much obliged.
I would like particularly the Iowa Jury picture.
Yours truly
H. H. Baxter [Dir. of the old Galena and then C&NWR 1870]
I. B. Howe, Esq
Clinton
April 27th 6. (1876? Tana)
Geo. L. Dunlap.
Genl. Supt.
Dear Sir:
Are there any objections to establishing a flag station at Le Grand Quarry if the Quarry Co. will furnish station buildings, agent etc. free of expense to the railway co.? The business there is so great that it is expensive going to Le Grand Station to leave orders, bills, etc., etc. There are new orders in from private individuals along the line for over five hundred (500) cars of stones which we could fill at full rates if we were not furnishing a large amount (at low prices) to the Co. to repair the track in the wet cuts. Vogel's lime kilns at the quarry have more orders than they can fill, so you see the quarry station has a prospect of being a better freight station than many of the old first class stations along the line. If we can establish a flag station there, we can get the free use of all the land required for tracks, etc.
I suppose the Le Grand people would favor a regular station and would do their business there rather than at Mr. Blair's Le Grand depot. Being about half way between Marshall and Oxford it would divide the distance very well; but there will be time enough to examine that matter hereafter. All I ask now is: May we establish a flag station at the quarry, to be maintained so long as there is a good fair business done there?
Respectfully yours,
I.B. Howe
Our home at Clinton, Iowa, November 18, 1876
My Dear Son George!
This being your birthday, and you a big four years old, I think that a little letter from Papa may please you. We have spoken of you and Mama a great many times today and wondered if you would remember that this was your birthday. Aunt Nett came to see us today, and will go home tomorrow. It snowed a little this morning, but not enough to make the ground white, the girls got out the sled. Oda and Daisy are teasing to go home with Aunt Net, but unless the weather is pleasant, I do not think we shall let them go. Daisy sleeps with me, and kicks like a little witch; but she is a good little girl. How did you and cousin Jim get along? I suppose he is a great boy now. Does cousin Walter go up to see you? I think he is a real nice little boy. Do you sing any of your little songs to gran'pa and gran'ma? Tell Mama that the girls seem to get along all right.
Papa
Note: Assuming Annie was visiting her parents in Janesville, Walter and Jim would be Fifield/Goulds. Edwin14, Hattie11, and Walter6 were Fifield children; mother Harriet had died in '73 when Walter was 3. Was there a little Jim Gould? Uncle Jim Gould Jr. is Annie's brother, married Emma Graham in 1869 and had a child who would be 7; perhaps it was another Jim and therefore a cousin to George.
Aunt Nett may have been living in or near Clinton at this time; too far to make an easy trip but not so far that the girls Oda 9, and Daisy 6 (later changed to Margaret) couldn't go for a short visit.